Remotely actuable door lock assemblies are wide-spread and commonly found in multi-family dwellings, such as apartments, where the occupant may have difficulty getting to the door in a timely manner after the door bell has sounded to manually unlock and open the door to admit a visitor. Such systems usually include a remotely-located keypad within the individual apartment and a receiver/power supply for actuating a solenoid or the like to selectively lock and/or unlock the door.
Retrofitting a door with a door knob and lock assembly that can be remotely actuated is often a difficult task requiring reconfiguring the mortises that receive the bolt assembly and the doorknobs. This task is often complicated by the need to achieve relatively precise dimensional relationships between the solenoid assembly held in the door jamb and the bolt portion held within the door.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a door lock assembly which can be retrofitted into an existing door without significant modification.
It is a further object to provide a remotely actuable door bolt assembly that is not overly dimensionally sensitive.
It is a still further object to provide such a remotely actuable door bolt assembly that can be overridden by the manual operation of a key.
These objects, as well as others that will become apparent upon reference to the drawings and detailed description, are provided by a lock assembly that includes a housing that is to be received in a mortise in the door. The housing holds a bolt that is retractable into the housing to permit the opening of the door and extendable from housing to secure the door in its closed position. The bolt has a first portion received within the housing and a second portion pivotally attached to the first portion so that second portion can pivot with respect to the first portion when the bolt is extended from the housing to permit the opening of the door without the use of a key or rotation of a doorknob. A latch is mounted within the opening of the door frame, the latch being selectively moveable from a first position engaging the second portion of the bolt when the door is closed in order to prevent the second portion of the bolt from pivoting with respect to the first portion, and thus lock the door in a closed condition, to a second position permitting the second portion of the bolt to pivot with respect to the first portion to allow the door to be opened.